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Check out my new book on nutrition and Parkinson’s

This post is devoted to telling you about my new book which seems pretty surreal. I always knew I wanted to write a book, I just thought it was going to be a romance novel. Maybe I should have named this book, “Romancing the Blueberry.” But I was more practical than that. It’s called “Eating Better for Parkinson’s.” less creative, perhaps, but rich in information about how different foods can impact symptoms and disease progression.

And now, check out what happens if you search for my name on Amazon.

Just click the image to see what the book looks like on Amazon!

But more than letting everyone know about this, I wanted to write about why now is the time for nutrition and Parkinson’s and why I wrote a starter guide.

In short: I’ve been sharing this information at wellness retreats and conferences, including the World Parkinson’s Congress 2016. Whenever I speak, people tell me that they want a written document that they can refer to. The book is that resource.

Planes, trains and automobiles!

Vancouver, Denver, St Louis Cleveland, Buffalo, Houston, Cincinnati…. the list goes on. Ever since I spoke at the World Parkinson’s Congress in the fall of ’16 here in Portland, I’ve had many invites to talk about nutrition and PD around the country.

Inspiration is everywhere – even on airport walls!

Dedicated communities – inspiring leaders

There are so many wonderful people up and down the land who dedicate their time to running large support groups and symposiums for People with Parkinson’s. I got to meet many of these heroes on my travels – Kevin and Yvonne in Rochester, Debbie in St. Louis, Sharon and Fred in Cleveland, Radhika, John and Chris in Buffalo – there are too many shout outs to give! They work hard at serving their communities and bringing new topics to their areas.

Radhika, me and John at Niagara falls after the PDF Buffalo symposium

Nutrition Rising

You can’t have missed all the talk about gluten free, GMO or the different types of nut milks in the stores and lots of talk about Paleo and Keto diets. With the greater awareness of what we fuel ourselves with, the question was might this apply to PD? Would Hippocrates still hold true – is food medicine?

The graph below shows the number of articles being published in the last decade and a half on PD and nutrition. In 2016 there were ten times the number of articles written as in 2000!

Apologies for the graph!! My partner, Colin, insisted on DATA!

New research – hard to access, difficult to translate (even when in English)

Yet, when my friends with Parkinson’s started hunting for information about how nutrition might impact their disease, they were disappointed. Most of the information available for nutrition and Parkinson’s was completely incomprehensible or unavailable to a non-scientist. It was hard to determine which studies applied to them or not.

Which way to go? I combed the literature to help people start

This book is a response to the frustration I heard from the Parkinson’s community. The people I spoke to wanted to know if there were things they should be eating (or NOT eating) that might impact their disease. In order to generate a guide for what a relevant diet for people with Parkinson’s would be, I combed the medical and nutrition literature for foods that had a specific effect on Parkinson’s. I also examined foods that have specific effects on the brain, either positive or negative. Because I’m an immunologist and I know that brain inflammation contributes to disease progression, I also investigated nutritional strategies to reduce inflammation.

This book has two goals: to make the latest research understandable and helping you access that research.

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About This Site

Hi there! I research, teach, travel, lecture and write about nutrition.
And in my spare time I'm the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM), director of Helfgott Research Institute, and Professor of Immunology.

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